Background: Inconsistent transitions of care from the inpatient to outpatient setting may lead to preventable readmissions. Critical processes completed at discharge shown to reduce readmissions at our institution include admission and discharge medication reconciliation, clinically appropriate follow-up scheduled prior to discharge, and timely completion of a discharge summary within 48 hours of discharge (the “Core [...]

Background: Late discharges are associated with hospital overcrowding, delayed inter-unit patient transfers, lower patient satisfaction scores and longer length of stay. At our hospital, there has been a consistent discordance between the teaching and non-teaching hospitalist services in the percentages of patients discharged before 11 am, which was 8.4% (teaching teams) versus 36.4% (non-teaching teams) [...]

Background: Reducing length of stay to improve access, minimize hospital-associated morbidity, and reduce cost is a top priority at many hospitals. Information about barriers and delays impacting discharge (i.e., arranging subacute nursing facility placement, setting up a new dialysis seat, receiving consult recommendations for discharge) is rarely documented and often obtained anecdotally or qualitatively. This [...]